The three shows of One Chicago have been on a break since before the Olympics, but NBC is bringing the franchise back in the 2026 TV schedule with a massive crossover. The heroes of Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med are joining forces for a three-hour event on March 4 that involves an in-flight emergency, some sky-high stakes, and an update on what's up with Upstead, a.k.a. former P.D. fan favorites Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) and Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer).
Showrunners Andrea Newman (Fire), Gwen Sigan (P.D.), and Allen MacDonald (Med) spoke with CinemaBlend about the "toughest" crossover yet. After the Chicago P.D. EP addressed whether Halstead needs to be redeemed with his return after how he left, the trio hyped what's "literally" death-defying with the three-parter.
An Airplane Comes To One Chicago
In case you saw the previews for the 2026 crossover and thought that the One Chicago teams surely must have used special effects TV magic to make it look like there was an airplane, that's not the case at all. NBC's production used a real-life jet to make the magic happen, on top of recruiting two former fan favorites back into the action.
When I asked the showrunners how complicated it was to pull together factors like an airplane and Upstead coming back for one event, P.D.'s Gwen Sigan shared:
Pretty complicated! I mean, the plane was big. It was something we weren't sure we could pull off, but everyone was able to pull it off. It was pretty shocking when we found out, 'Oh yeah, we got a plane and we're going to shoot on it.' [laughs] And the same thing for Trace and Jesse. Luckily they were both available when we needed them, which was surprising. They've been busy. They've been doing a lot of stuff. The stars all aligned. We were able to make it all happen.
The airplane is how the Firehouse 51 crew enters the story after a passenger jet goes silent mid-air, and early looks at the crossover reveal that Upton – now FBI Special Agent Hailey Upton – will be in the mix with the firefighters. And apparently, the cast and crew experienced a full Windy City winter event while filming.
Filming In "Death-Defying" Conditions
After the Chicago P.D. boss addressed the complications of the airplane and the lucky timing of Jesse Lee Soffer and Tracy Spiridakos being available, Chicago Fire's Andrea Newman joked that it was "no biggie" for the shows to film "in a polar vortex." When I noted that it seemed nerve-wracking to film a massive TV production outdoors in a Chicago winter, Newman explained:
Death-defying. It is death defying, literally. And our crews – and I keep saying this, but it's absolutely true – were superheroes. Our line producers and our crews were out there in sub freezing temperatures, below zero temperatures, filming this, doing crazy action, landing planes, tackling each other. All of it, and the cast [are] always such incredible sports about it. I think they really get a kick out of working with each other. And they get energized by each other. They all know each other at this point, but getting to work together and be together in these scenes, I think helps everybody, just like bolsters everyone to bring their A games.
If anybody knows anything about pulling off "death-defying" moves in primetime, it would be the Chicago Fire crew! It's good to hear that even if the weather conditions weren't ideal, the casts of the three shows enjoyed working together. The characters rarely all interact outside of city-threatening crises once per year, but it sounds like the actors are all-in on sharing scenes with their fellow One Chicago stars.
The "Toughest" Crossover So Far
This of course isn't the first time that the shows have come together, although there was a long break between the "Infection" three-parter of 2019 and the first post-COVID crossover last year that was described as Avengers-esque. Speaking with CinemaBlend, the showrunners agreed that having experience with combining the shows doesn't necessarily make it any easier to do again. Andrea Newman shared that the 2026 event "was the toughest," and Gwen Sigan responded:
[It's] always a challenge. I mean, to make a story work for all three shows and incorporate all of these characters in a way that makes sense and still feels grounded and has enough story engine to go this long and so you don't get bored in three hours, it's a big challenge, and kudos to our writers that we're able to make it happen.
Allen MacDonald, for whom this event is only his second big One Chicago crossover after he joined Chicago Med as new showrunner for Season 10, went on to specifically credit the various writers who brought the story together:
We want to give a shout out to the writers themselves. It's Victor Teran on Chicago Fire, Edgar Castillo on Chicago P.D., and Meridith Friedman on Chicago Med. They are the ones that really put their heads together, sometimes literally, to plan these stories out.
Andrea Newman added that the writers had been putting their heads together "for months and months," so suffice it to say that this TV event is the product of a lot of work both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, polar vortex and all. Fortunately, the wait is nearly over to see it.
The three-part One Chicago crossover begins on Wednesday, March 4 at 8 p.m. ET, with Chicago Fire switching slots with Chicago Med to kick things off. The medical drama will keep the action going at 9 p.m. ET, before Chicago P.D. wraps everything up starting at 10 p.m. ET, all on NBC. You'll also have the option of streaming all three episodes next day with a Peacock subscription.
